Adoption: Russia closes in on banning U.S. citizens from adopting (links)

View full sizeAlexander D'Jamoos (center) poses with his adoptive parents, Michael and Helene D'Jamoos, and his younger brother, Marc, while on a family vacation. Alexander, who was born with no legs, grew up in a Russian orphanage and was adopted after he came to a Texas hospital to have a prosthesis attached that enabled him to walk. He is angry over legislation pending in Moscow that would ban adoptions of Russian children by AmericansThe Associated Press

The biggest topic on adoption blogs these days is the pending Russian move to block U.S. citizens from adopting Russian children.

On Friday, the lower chamber of the Russian lawmaking body, the Duma, passed a bill that imposes a series of sanctions on U.S. interests. Russia is one of the top countries of origin for international adoptions in the United States.

As CNN reports, the action is widely viewed as retaliation after President Barack Obama signed the Magnitsky Act in early December. It places travel and financial restrictions on
human rights abusers in Russia.

The New Yorker takes a look at why things have come to this pass, and at opposition to the law within Russia. Politicians and religious leaders are far from unanimous on the proposal, it noted:

The protests were so powerful that many observers thought President
Putin would not support the Duma’s initiative—or at least that he would
propose a postponement. ... But those who
expected magnanimity were proved to be fully wrong: Putin confirmed his
support for the measure, calling it “tough but fair.”

In fact, Putin’s response was hardly surprising. He often says that
nobody has the right to teach Russia what’s right and what’s wrong; for
him, the Magnitsky Act was an insult.

The depth of Putin's upset is described in an interesting piece by the Christian Science Monitor,which explains that Putin is tying his support of the law to much-publicized cases in which adopted Russian children died after joining U.S. families.

You usually can judge Vladimir Putin’s dislike of a reporter's question by the intensity of his expression. Such was the case this week at his annual news conference, when he greeted with a hard scowl the subject of pending Russian legislation that would ban Americans from adopting orphaned children. Mr. Putin unleashed invective on the fact that consular representatives aren’t allowed to visit adopted Russian children in the United States.

The piece goes on to explain, "As is often the case in Russia, there is the issue of what is going on versus what is really going on. "

An Associated Press story looks back at some of the cases that Russia is complaining about, and gets reaction from U.S. adoption experts.

And one story looks at the human face of the inter-country bickering: NBC News profiles a 7-year-old who's waiting for his brother to be adopted and brought home from Russia.